What: The Rocky Horror Show Live
Where: Metro Studio, 1411 Quadra St.
When: Today, Oct. 24, 25, 29, 30, Nov. 1, 8 p.m.
Two Halloween (Oct. 31) shows: 7, 10 p.m.
Tickets: $30, or $35 including Rocky Horror Prop Kit
Reservations: 250-590-6291, ticketrocket.org
Halloween just wouldn’t be the same without The Rocky Horror Picture Show experience. And this year, you can see it live in Victoria.
While devotees will surely traipse, zombie-like, to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show Oct. 30 and 31 at the Vic, there’s now flesh-and-blood theatrical alternative here.
For its inaugural show, RKO (Rebel Knock Out) Productions is rebooting the bizarre misadventures of Brad and Janet, the clean-cut sweethearts who cross paths with Dr. Frank N. Furter, the mad transvestite scientist popularized onscreen by Tim Curry. And its creative team says it won’t be confused, sexually or otherwise, with the film spawned by Richard O’Brien’s 1973 musical.
“Having a live band and singing brings a powerful energy to the show,” says Britt Small, the Atomic Vaudeville artistic producer who directed The Rocky Horror Show Live, opening tonight at Metro Studio. “Watching it live brings all kinds of surprises as the actors respond to the audience interaction, and it becomes a kind of dialogue … It has a real rock-concert feel to it.”
Producer Griffin Lea, whose acting credits include playing Cliff Bradshaw in Langham Court Theatre’s Cabaret and Dr. Frank N. Furter in the Kaleidoscope Theatre production, is donning the outrageous character’s corset and stilettos again. His castmates include R.J. Peters as Brad, Sarah Anne Murphy as Janet, Kelly Hudson as Riff Raff and musical director Stephanie Sartore as Magenta.
While their unconventional production is indeed interactive — authorized Rocky Horror prop kits can be purchased on site — theatregoers needn’t worry about being put on the spot, promises Candace Woodland, the Canadian College of Performing Arts graduate who co-founded RKO with Lea, Murphy and Hudson. Woodland also plays the groupie Columbia.
“We wanted it to be an inclusive experience but we’re not going to be coming into the audience to make you do things,” she said with a laugh.
“We don’t want to scare anyone away.”
Theatregoers will have plenty of opportunities to hold newspapers over their head and so on “but it’s totally up to you,” said Woodland, who knows at least one person who won’t be dancing.
“My mom will not stand up and do the Time Warp,” she said. “She’ll still love the show in her own introverted way.”
While watching the movie with “that cult mentality” can be an enjoyable interactive experience, the stage show has a different dynamic, adds the Camosun College social work student.
“The cool thing about the live show is the actors get to respond in some ways,” she said, using Frank’s “I see you shiver with antici … pation” line as an example of a classic that can be played with.
“We’re not going to start talking to the audience, but it’s so cool that in a live-theatre setting you can do those types of things.”
While Woodland considers herself “less extroverted” than her castmates, she says Small’s direction made Columbia “so manic and insane” she got to leap out of her comfort zone.
“I was joking to Griffin that I never want to be in another show Britt is not directing,” Woodland said. “She’s so hands-on and clear. She’s one of our greatest assets.”
Small said she had so much talent to work with “I think audiences will be delightfully surprised,” by what the musicians and cast bring.
“The actors are interpreting the characters in their own way, and inspired by the familiar movie version, but playing to their own strengths,” Small said.
She said James Insell, on Ride the Cyclone’s design team, added “his own twist” to the costumes and set design for what Woodland terms “part musical theatre, part really awesome party.”
The new theatre company’s title was inspired by the classic Hollywood company (Radio-Keith-Orpheum), referred to in the movie, Woodland says.
“The reason Rocky Horror is so popular is because of the movie anyway, so it’s got a filmic quality,” she said, adding it’s so popular the show almost sells itself.
Still, the stakes are high. It costs about $20,000 to stage a show of this magnitude, with $5,000 raised through crowd-funding, and its collaborators paid through profit-sharing.
That’s why Lea and Woodland have a running joke every time someone asks where RKO Productions will go from here.
“We say: ‘Let’s talk Nov. 2,’ ” she said.